And In The End
by the revenge of the octopus
Summary: It's 200 hundred years after the Mortal Wars, and the Daylighter and the Warlock are the only ones left. They are each coping with their separate griefs when they meet again and reminisce about the past.


The sun was bright. It always was. Even though he was a Daylighter, and had been a vampire for 200 years. Even though he could now say the word 'God' without his throat burning. As he strode into the kitchen, wrapped in his robe, he wondered idly why he bothered with breakfast. He wasn't that hungry. He would probably have some blood anyways, but debating useless things hurt less than thinking about the Shadowhunters he had known 200 years previously. He even missed Jace, in a weird way.

As he checked his holocom for incoming e-messages (not that he ever had any) his eyes paused on the one message in his inbox.

_Miss me, Lewis? I feel certain you're still vamping out here in New York (or, as I like to call it, New New York). How would you feel about lunch at The Shoebox on Main? Noon sound good? I will wait for fifteen minutes. If you're not there by then..._

_-Magnus Bane the Magnificent_

Simon would have felt his heart constrict if he was still alive. Or his breath would have stopped, or something dramatic like that. As it was, he felt as if someone had dropped an iron brand into his stomach. He remembered Magnus telling him:

"In 200 years we'll be the only ones left." He had looked so sad as he gazed at Alec asleep in the chair next to him. The Shadowhunter that had captured Magnus' heart had died a long, long time ago. He wondered if Magnus had found anyone else. He doubted it. Magnus had loved Alec more than anything in the world. He had cried when Alec died, even though he had tried to make him mortal. Magnus loved Alec like he had loved Izzy. He wished he wasn't cursed to live forever. It was so painful.

He sighed. Well. It looked like he was going to have to get dressed that day after all.

. . .

Magnus glanced at his watch. The mundanes had made some weird universal time. It kept messing him up. Lewis had better be coming, he thought. He only had five more minutes of waiting time... And there he was, pulling up a hover chair. Everything floated these days. He looked tired. Magnus didn't blame him. He'd spent his own share of nights up crying for Alec to _come here no you can't die I love you come back. _They'd both lost someone to the Mortal Wars. That was what they called them now. It was a fitting name, Magnus thought. So many had realized their mortality. They remembered that Death is always there, a shadow creeping just around the corner, waiting for you to make a mistake. And so many mistakes were made.

"Lewis," he spoke. "I didn't think you were coming." Simon shrugged.

"I got lost." Magnus raised his eyebrows. There were so many GPS things these days that was almost impossible. "And I wouldn't have missed this for anything. You're the only one who's left. Even the other vampires from then are all dead. As if I would talk to them." He snorted.

" Let's order. These robots are so weird, right?" A robot of the type that had replaced all good food service across America took their order. There was none of the chitchat and gossip that would have accompanied a 21st century human waiter. So much had changed over the centuries. And only he and Simon were there to remember the past.

"Simon," he said hesitantly after the robot had left. "Do you ever wish you could have died with her?" Simon glanced up, surprised.

"All the time," he said earnestly. Magnus nodded slowly.

"Immortality is a burden. As the ages go on, you lock everyone out of your life. They'll all die eventually, anyways. They're just mundanes. And when you find somebody who loves you, and you love back, who breaks down your walls... You think you have no choice but to push them away. Their death... will destroy you as you go through the centuries, alone. No one will be able to touch you like they have. And their face fades in your mind, and you lose their picture, or throw it away because it's too painful to look at. And you end up like Camille, empty and cold. And death isn't an option when you can never die. And everybody else lives their lives wishing for them to be longer. Everybody but you. And it hurts so, so much."

"Alec," Simon whispered softly. Magnus nodded shakily, his eyes filled with pain. A tear drop leaked from the corner of his eye, and he lifted a trembling hand to brush it away.

You loved him," Simon said, his voice filled with certainty.

"I loved him, and his death was my fault. If I hadn't- if I had forgiven him, he wouldn't have gone to kill Camille. Maureen wouldn't have-" his voice broke.

"I thought the pain would fade," Simon said eventually. "I mean, it's been 200 years." He shook his head and laughed bitterly. "But I guess that's what happens when you fall in love with a Shadowhunter. They die and leave you alone for the rest of your forever life. I would give anything for her to be alive again," he continued, quietly. "I lay awake at night wondering if there was anything I could have done to save her. But there's nothing. It's the past. But I still can't forget the past."

They parted. They had said both everything and nothing. They would continue living their lives. They hadn't changed. They still missed their lovers who had died so long ago. Centuries turned and they met their ends, each in their own way in their own time. The world went on without the vampire and warlock who had lived for so long. And the past was finally forgotten.


End file.
